Being Object, Being Art: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Museum of World Cultures, Frankfurt am Main

323 pages : color illustrations ; 29 cm. Published in conjuncation with an exhibition held at the Museum of World Cultures, Frankfurt am Main, Oct. 31, 2009-Oct. 31, 2010. Summary:"Cultures contribute to the richness of this world through their uniqueness and variety as do their material products. This is reflected in the high-quality ethnographic collections from Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Oceania and East Asia at the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt/Main. For the first time, 130 ethnographica everyday objects or ritual items from indigenous societies taken from the abundance of a collection inventory comprising 67.000 items, are publicly presented from the point of view of 'the masterpiece' in an exquisite art project. The concept of 'masterpiece' comes from the century-old tradition of craft education. While a journeyman completed his apprenticeship with a 'journeyman's piece', only the one who was generally recognized as 'master' because of his excellent craftsmanship among many other requirements to be fulfilled received the title of a master. Selected from a personal point of view by the regional curators, the beholder is meant to discover the extraordinary, the elaborate, the different, the perfect, the harmonic or even the disturbing in the objects concerned. Although the presentation of the works the lack of space preventing from showing more than 98 items in the exhibition underlines the aspect of art, the objects are also interpreted in their ethnographic contexts".